In the space of 20 minutes, my son initiated a conversation that his girlfriend (19) is being told by her parents she needs to move out this Friday (not the first time she's been told this, but this time it sounds like they mean it), and my husband announced that he 'forgot' to get gas in the motorcycle he's using and the 'light came on' when he arrived at work (40 miles away.)
With truly no criticism intended for either party or anyone else, I have always been dumbfounded by people who fail to plan ahead and/or have a plan.
I am a planner. And a backup planner. And for decades (professionally) I devised computer disaster backup recovery plans for Fortune 500 companies. Stephen Covey and I are siblings from a different mother. I love checklists, long range planning, working my program. So I truly don't understand people who row their boat merrily down the stream without any idea of where they're going, let alone how they're going to get there.
I don't know if my planning orientation is nature or nurture. I often joke that the Chinese establish a plan for their children by age 2. My Asian friends wryly laugh and nod their heads in agreement...they complained about it as kids, but now that they have their own, they sheepishly admit to doing the same thing. I further joke (kind of) that since I'm only half-Chinese I got to live to age 5 before my plan was cast in concrete. I'm not kidding about that one, BTW. When I was 5 I did something (again) to tick my mother off, and she announced to both me and my father that when I was 18, I better have a plan because I'd be getting kicked out of her house the day of, with a suitcase and two months rent.
It was a comment repeated frequently as I was growing up. So much so, that I started responding that I was going to hold her to it. By the time I was 16, I had graduated from high school and traded the rent money for a car (figuring, I could always sleep in a car, and at least I'd have debt-free transportation.)
Sure, one could take the victim mentality that my parent(s) were horrible, but I chose to take it for the blessing that it was: I knew that by the time I was 18, I better have a plan for my life. So of course, being an overachieving Asian, I sped up the time table by two years, LOL. I started working outside the home when I was 14, the summer I graduated high school I worked 3 jobs, the time equivalent of two full time positions. The day I turned 18, I moved out of state and never looked back.
I've raised my kids that they need to have a plan for their lives. Those who have listened have gone on to achieve great things with their lives--not necessarily fame and fortune. One listened and looked at the AirForce ROTC while she was a freshman in college and found a match made in heaven. One has learned what it takes to raise and maintain a family and unlike many other kids his age, knows that a minimum wage job isn't going to cut it. It was funny to see this particular kid (his senior year of high school) query why his friends were "seniors in high school and didn't know what they were going to do out of high school; how come they don't have a plan?" One decided to develop a plan and at 17, is now a junior in college.
It's true the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry: my garden plans are a classic example; stay at home Moms know just because you have a plan at 7am, doesn't mean you're actually going to achieve that plan. Hopefully you've planned for that contingency, lol. But isn't life better with some direction? It's ironic that one will spend more time planning a vacation, or mapping out their drive to unfamiliar territory than they will spend deciding what they are going to do with their life, and how they are going to achieve it. Sure, life often throws us curve balls, but in life as in baseball, you can actually learn how to successfully hit a curve ball.
Some look at debt and think they will never be debt free. I and many others know that if you develop a plan and work your plan, you can live debt free. Some in Step 1 look at sobriety and feel they will never experience sober living, but I know that if you work your program (your plan) one step at a time, you can have a rich and rewarding addiction free life. Some paid attention in Physic's class and internalized that a body in motion tends to remain in motion, and set their course accordingly.
Life is better with a plan. If you find yourself adrift, realize that TODAY is the first day of the rest of your life. You are the master of your fate. You can decide to change, improve or establish a plan: personally, professionally, spiritually, financially. If you find your plan is not working, take a minute to reassess and adjust if necessary.
Plan. It stands for:
Preparing
Life's
Actions
Now
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